This one pours a dark red color with no head and no carbonation. The aroma is wonderful. Sweet smell. Actually, it smells exactly like sweet candy. Incredible. The flavor is much the same, but it's alcoholic fruity candy. It has a slight sting from the alcohol, but this stuff is damn tasty - strickly candy-like. The mouthfeel is pretty thick, actually and the drinkability is wonderful for the level of alcohol. Just candy.

This is yet another great brew sent to me courtesy of hoppymeal, thanks Derek! Kuhnhenn's Raspberry Eisbock pours like syrup into my flute which creates a problem conjuring up a head. The body is dark and murky, the color of raspberry juice that while dark manages to glow around the edges of the glass when backlit. I did manage to get a thin skimming of head that quickly fizzled to nothing but a thin ecru collar. The thin collar that's there leaves behind sheet lacing that slowly slides back into the body.

The smell of this eisbock is out of this world good. Fresh ripe raspberry puree jumps from the glass right off the bat and is quickly followed by rich dark chocolate. There's a faint booziness in the back that only adds to the incredibly rich aroma. This beer is like dessert in a bottle, I can't get over how perfectly sweet the raspberry is and how perfectly rich the dark chocolate is. How do you get this aroma into a bottle?

The flavor is exactly what the aroma suggested. I thought it would be tough to keep up with the aroma on this beer but the flavor does just that. Freshly pureed raspberries are drizzled with molten dark chocolate. There's a quick flash of bread pudding but the chocolate and raspberries take center stage. This is one amazing beer!

This is a sipper/nightcap sort of beer but it fits this beer perfectly. The body is rich and thick with a coating quality that keeps the tongue busy for awhile. Mellow carbonation keeps this beer slowly moving while the raspberry and chocolate sweetness hangs out on the tongue for awhile.

Even though this is a sipper it's a beer I would be happy sipping all night long. The 13% isn't even noticeable and this beer just keeps on flowing.

This is one of the best beers I've had in awhile. I can't figure out how Kuhnhenn packed that flavor into this beer. I would love to get my hands on a case of this stuff. Thanks for the bottle Derek!

We crack the wax on a bottle of 2012 stock, pouring a syrupy looking brew of dark ruby red. It puts up a one finger head of big, latte colored bubbles on a hard pour, showing nice retention. Spots of lacing are left all around the glass. A chill haze permeates the clarity, with no sediment noted. Carbonation appears minimal, and the few bubbles seen are near microscopic. The aroma gives sugary sweet raspberry preserves, tinny metallics, and milky, chocolatey malts with a hearty roast. With warmth comes massive booziness, sweaty saltiness, fusel nail polish remover, cloven phenols, vanilla cake icing, and toasted raspberry seeds. Our first impression is that this beer is exactly what is advertised, with huge smoothing sweetness and vanilla coolness to cut the massive boozy top. As we sip, vanilla wafers, raspberry jam, milk chocolaty malts, burnt caramel sugars, and stinging booze start things off. The peak shows hugely enhanced sweetness and earthen depth to the raspberry component, which is juicy and authentic. Peppery, fusel alcohol burns its way in, flash boiling chunky raspberry preserves, brown and amber malts, chalked yeast, and soy sauce saltiness into blended oblivion. Washing through the finish is continued berry sweetness of raspberry and strawberry, GERD-inducing tequila-like burn, clover honey sweetness, cloying sugars, and light residual milk chocolates. The aftertastes breathes of more of the same, with clean honey sweetness, big berry fruitiness, fusel ethanol, amber and chocolatey malts, faint roast, mild metallics, and cold, brown breadiness. The body is full, and the carbonation is low. The mouth and lips are coated with immense stickiness, while the tongue streaks down with final burning booze dryness, following this slick, oily, impenetrably thick coating. The booze and sugars also give pucker. Each sip gives stark slurp, pop, and smack, but lesser cream and froth. The abv is massive but well hidden, and the beer sips surprisingly well.

Overall, what we enjoyed most about this beer was the strong flavoring, with hugely inclusive raspberry authenticity, cooling vanilla cut, and expertly hidden booziness. This all blends to make a highly drinkable brew given that abv. Honestly, through and through this is not very complex swill, but it remains true to what is advertised, just on a bigger scale than you might have prepared for. With warmth the booze certainly blossoms, but otherwise is well hidden through the nose and the palate. This beer is undeniably huge, and takes courage to tackle, but if you’ve got the patience, and the friends to share with, it is a rare, true treat.

2007 vintage. 6.3oz. Pours a dark brown color with some garnet/ruby edges. No head at all, but to be expected from this big beer in a small bottle.

Big toffee, caramel aroma backed by some raspberries and a hint of chocolate. Maybe a bit of ripe fruit softly in the background. Pretty nice to sit and smell this one for a while.

Huge blast of sugary caramel, which stops short of being cloying. Some alcohol, then a bit of slightly sweet and sour raspberries. Slightly sweet and sour flavor lingers forever. I could still taste this several minutes after taking a sip. Very impressive.

Thick, alomst syrupy, with very low carbonation level. Some warming from alcohol. Stops short of being too sweet, but a very rich, dessert brew. Great for after dinner. I really liked this one. Very well made.

After wrestling with the wax, revealed was a deep clear russet containing a few small bubbles rising to meet the fluffy dense dark tan settled 1/4" headcap which is like a good thief leaving no traces of presence at the scene. High ABV leaves the glass clean and spotless!

First swigs: Thick viscous malty almost doppelbock. Cocoa. Dry raspberry fruit dark fruit middle. Raisins, and a hint of port vinious. Remember those Tootsie pops with the tootsie roll in the middle? Well that is this! ON!

Feel is thick yet subtle soft and a fairly easy clean finish. Wow! Some cherry syrup linger, but clean. This is a beer that needs to be had again. That's good drinkability.

Last swigs: Chocolate covered raisins. This beer is a politician: Drinkability talks an easy talk but once this gets going, the ABV will lie and before you know it.... whoah! Thanks to our fellow BA resident Calvinist GeoffFromSJ who astutely taught me today that "Jesus saves, Moses invests." 73/4.29 Tettnang! Boo-yah!

Review 600! Thanks to goryshkewych for this in a trade over a year ago. 2007 bottle.

A: Poured a syrupy brown with zero head. Not so much lacing but the liquid runs down the glass very slowly.

S: Damn that is a nose. Raspberry chocolate cake. Some darker fruits as well. Perhaps a touch of tobacco. If you do not put the smell of this as a 5 you probably have suffered brain damage. Incredible.

T: Just an assault on your tongue. Chocolate and raspberries right up front. Almost has a cigar like tobacco taste as well. Lots of sweetness. The booze is there and it is warming on the way down.

M: Thick like...well it's thick. No carbonation at all.

D: I split the nip bottle and I want more. Just a really well crafted beer. Tons of complexity without being overwhelming. I have never been disappointed with anything this brewery has produced.

No real hard, more like lacing across the surface, even a big swirl hardly gets anything going, no true lacing along glass sides. Orange-brown muddy river inside the glass, fully opaque yellowed rims, curiously you can see the carbonation steadily rises to the surface where it breaks into nothing. The nose is heady stuff, a dessert of raspberry preserves, melted dark chocolate, caramel, orange infusion, coconut flakes, texturally full and expansive while actually nowhere sweet enough to annoy, mild whiskey notes but no burn. Medium-bodied, the carbonation works hard to lift the flavors off the tongue while here adds an underlying sourness which restrains more of the sugary side. The raspberry fresh and natural with supplementary sour cherry accents. The German chocolate cake element marches on, caramel and coconut with a cream cheese brush as well. A touch grainy as it warms. The orange, lemon citrus brings bite to the finish, helps refresh palate for the next sip. More muscular than many Belgian framboise lambics, which boosts drinkability. A beer worth seeking out.

For my 600th BA review, I poured this one from a tiny 6.3oz green bottle into a stemmed tulip glass.

A= This beer poured a murky brown with reddish highlights and a thin 1/4" light tan head. The head disappeared in seconds, leaving a thin ring beind. No lace to speak of (but none was expected either).

S= Smelled like fruit pie (raspberry and cherry) complete with a rich and heavy malt sweetness. This was tempered somewhat by a fruity tartness and boozy alcohol heat. This reminded me very much of a fruit brandy.

T= Started off with big malty richness, reminiscent of bread pudding. The fruit came in next combining with big notes of chocolate to make a near perfect chocolate-covered-cherry taste. The raspberry emerged from this making me wonder if I ever tasted cherries at all. Cool trick that. The finish was boozy and full of alcohol.

Appearance: Pours a hazy orange, purple amber - what color IS this example? - with absolutely no head, only the faintest sheen of snow, and a thin, offwhite, but persistent collar of lace. There actually are a few flourishes of streaky lacing that fade, glittery and slowly, down the sides of the glass. This one looks bottle conditioned, given the haze, and at 13.5%, I can't really knock the lack of retention on the head.

Taste: Fantastic. Chocolate and berry liqueur, again both tart and sweet, with hints of other fruits - blueberry, green apple, cherry note, maybe apricot or peach. The fruit notes are incredibly authentic - you can almost taste the (what was certainly) tons of raspberries tossed into the fermentor w/ this one. More pungently sweet, sticky malts - chocolate, toffee, caramel, honey, all over the top. A definite but wonderfully smooth boozy note. Absolutely decadent.

Mouthfeel: Fantastic, again. Incredibly smooth and sticky, but so smooth. There's still, somehow, a fair measure of carbonation here, cutting through the sticky thickness and rendering a slightly crisp (which helps augment the fruit notes) but still amazingly even and smooth (which helps augment the malt notes). Just great.

Drinkability: About as drinkable as they come for a 13.5% brew. Just an absolutely over-the-top yet still balanced, decadent, tasty brew, tart and sweet, sticky and crisp, fruity and malty, and fantastically quaffable. The presentation is great - bottle's just so damn cute - and the contents even better. The price may have been a little steep ($10.99 for this one), but it's damn straight tasty. Recommended.

Was able to snag a 2007 vintage of this, actually 2, the other one will cellar for a bit longer.

It pours into my snifter like syrup and it is a brownish/reddish/goldish color with a surprising head after the higher gravity pour.

The smell is pretty outrageous, it is thick with caramel, chocolate, vanilla, and most dominant, raspberry. It smells like liquid dessert.

The mouthfeel is full-bodied as expected but not as good as Aventinus Eisbock, which remains the king of all Eisbocks, but it is semi-syrupy and lightly carbonated.

The flavor follows the nose, with Raspberry liquer, hints of caramel, brandy, and other dark fruits. It isn't the taste explosion I was expecting after smelling it, but it is good nonetheless. The alcohol is surprisingly well hidden and there really isn't enough here (although I split a bottle, but still) to really get your throat burning.

This is probably my second favorite Eisbock, I can't wait for my next bottle.